Postgame: Chicago

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Crew head coach Robert Warzycha made no bones about it: his
club was outplayed, especially in the second half, in losing a disappointing game to rival
Chicago.

The statistics tell most of the story. Chicago had 21 attempts on goal including 16 in the
second half compared to five and two, respectively, for the Crew. The Fire had seven shots on
target – all in the second half – while the Crew did not record any for the entire game.

Chicago had 14 open-play crosses to seven for the Crew, and most importantly one goal compared
to none for the visitors.

“I thought we came out strong,” defender Josh Williams said. “I wouldn’t say they were the
better team in the first half. It was even. The second half, they totally dominated play. We just
couldn’t get anything going. It’s tough to stomach, man. I didn’t think we played well at all.
There’s no excuse for coming out the way we did. I think everyone is frustrated now. We’ve got some
games coming up at home and we need all the points we can get in every one of those games.”

I asked Williams what changed after halftime.

“We just came out flat,” he said. “We need to find something in here. I don’t know what it is,
but in the second half we need to get our (stuff) together and come out stronger because this, it’s
been a couple of games like that and there’s no excuse for that. Whatever we need to do, we need to
find it fast.”

It’s not the first time players have mentioned coming out flat this season. The 1-1 home draw
with Philadelphia in the home opener immediately springs to mind.

When Warzycha said the Fire played to win, I asked if I should take that to mean he felt his
team did not do the same.

“One team was better than the other team,” he said. “Obviously we tried to win the game, but you
can’t win the game giving them so many chances.”

I asked Jeff Larentowicz how the Fire had managed to make the Crew defense look as shaky as it
has all season. Not surprisingly, his answer singled out Federico Higuain.

“I think that all week we were planning on how they were going to play and a lot of it is to get
the ball to Higuain early,” he said. “Once the ball turned over we made sure that we knew where he
was and were able to cut off passing lanes into him. When we do that, then they can’t find him and
they can’t build because he’s a talented guy and he likes to play the ball.”

Higuain, the team’s designated player, entered the weekend tied for second in MLS in corner
kicks with 26. The Crew did not have a corner kick against the Fire, while the home side had 10
including six in the second half. The lack of chances on dead balls was a killer for the Crew
offense, especially on a night when the defense was struggling to keep Chicago from running
wild.

That makes four straight games where Higuain has not recorded a goal or an assist. He has one of
each through seven games, and although he is impacting the game in other ways the Crew needs him on
the stat sheet to be successful, plain and simple. It has to be concerning to Warzycha that, again,
the worst-rated defense in the league was able to so effectively stymie an offense that had
averaged 1.50 goals per game while playing four of its first six on the road. And after saying this
week that the Crew needs to start posting some shutouts, it allowed a critical goal.

“I think if you watch the games, they’ve created a lot of chances,” he said of the Fire. “They
were unlucky in their game against Houston, and in their game against New York and the other games
they created chances but were unfortunate they couldn’t score. Their offense is pretty good but
luck wasn’t on their side. Today obviously they had some chances and they score.”

It’s worth noting that some of the pre-game conversation in the press box centered on Fire head
coach Frank Klopas and whether he might be on the hot seat in Chicago. That’s what a 2-8-2 stretch
in his last 12 games can do, but tonight at least he can breathe a sigh of relief.

Also, it should be mentioned that the Fire could have easily had more if goalkeeper Andy
Gruenebaum had not played his best game of the season. I did not get to catch up with Gruenebaum
after the match, but Williams praised the effort of the team’s last line of defense.

“Andy, he stood on his head for us the whole (second) half,” Williams said. “Credit to him, but
we need to be tighter on our men. We have 100 percent confidence in him and our back line.

“Even though they were getting chances I didn’t think they were going to score. I thought we
were going to hold them off. If you keep giving up chances like that in the box, the guy can’t save
everything. We need to find a way to control the ball and take some pressure off of him.”

The Crew returns home for a three-game stretch starting next Saturday against D.C. United. Each
member of the Crew I spoke with after the game independently brought up the obvious: the Crew needs
to earn some serious points in these upcoming games, or things could get dicey in a hurry.

“There’s been a couple of games in a row that have been tough but I think we’ve played well,”
said forward Dominic Oduro, who had one attempt on goal. “We’ve just got to go back and play a
couple of home games, get ourselves motivated and keep going forward.”